How ITIL Practitioner Enables You to Become a True ITSM Professional

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ITpreneurs had asked Kaimar Karu, Head of ITSM at AXELOS to write a foreword to be included in the ITpreneurs ITIL Practitioner coursebook. The foreword is published here on the blog to encourage ITIL practitioners.

Times have changed. The IT function cannot afford to remain an ’outsider’, a mere cost center for the rest of the organization. The focus has shifted from what IT had to do to keep the lights on, to what IT can really do to support the organization. Thanks to technology becoming more resilient, and many aspects of it becoming a commodity, IT professionals can finally do what they have always wanted to do – truly support the business.

The focus has shifted from what IT had to do to keep the lights on, to what IT can really do to support the organization.

The journey of becoming a true partner will not be easy. Many of the ways of working – designed to overcome the technical limitations and the overall complexity of IT systems – need to be replaced with more efficient and effective approaches. Concerns that once kept IT professionals awake at night are not there anymore. Technical metrics that once were the only way to assess the performance both for the IT and the rest of the organization have been replaced with business-focused metrics. The demand for services – instead of just applications or hardware – is stronger than ever, and ITSM is becoming the way of looking at IT.

Improvement is not something extra you do when you have time, it is your work. Every day.

One of the biggest challenges for ITSM professionals is to make sure that the activities, processes, procedures, everything in you do on a daily basis is well aligned with the rest of the organization, and helps to extract maximum benefits from using IT as a business enabler. The only way to make sure the approach does not go out of date and stays well aligned with the ever-changing needs of the business is to enable and support continual improvement – and do that on a daily basis. Improvement is not something extra you do when you have time, it is your work. Every day.

This is your kata, something you practice every day to become better and better.

In the ITIL Practitioner guidance, we have covered the key enablers for continual improvement for all professionals working in ITSM. The CSI approach is a stable core, a backbone for carrying out any improvements, big or small, across the organization or just with your team. This is your kata, something you practice every day to become better and better.

We have also drawn from three critical competency areas – communication, measurement and metrics, and organizational change management. We believe that by becoming skilled in these truly separates ITIL practitioners from the crowd, and enables you to both identify the highest value providing improvements for your organization, and to successfully carry these out with the help of your peers. And, when in doubt, check your ideas and the approach against the nine guiding principles – these will show you the true north.

You must always remember that the value of improvements is not just something being changed for the sake of change, but by ensuring the improvement is fully aligned with the goals and objectives of the organization. This is the only way to help your organization conquer new heights, and ensure the support from your internal and external stakeholders is always there for you.

I hope you will enjoy the course designed by ITpreneurs in collaboration with many wise and experienced ITSM professionals from around the world, and that you will find knowledge, skills, and courage to lead improvements in your organization from the day you get back to the office.

About the author

Kaimar Karu
Minister of Foreign Trade and Information Technology, Republic of Estonia

I’ve worked at the intersection of IT and Business Management in the private and public sectors for over 20 years. My career started in IT Operations, followed by multiple roles in Software Engineering, Product Management, Project and Program Management, IT Management, Business Development, Professional Development, and Management Consulting.

I’m a published author, an internationally recognized conference speaker, and an experienced trusted advisor at the CxO level, helping with and executing enterprise-wide exploration, expansion, transformation, and modernization initiatives.

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